Archives for February 2014

Looking for bargain camera/lens combinations that can produce great image quality is fun.  How about the Carl Zeiss 135mm f/2 APO-Sonnar ZF.2 on the a7 with the Novoflex adapter? Can it compare to the much more expensive (three times as much !) combination of the 135mm f/3.4 Leica APO-Telyt on the M240? Here is the… [Read More]

Are there other lenses with prices less lofty than Leica glass that combine with the a7 to yield similar or better performance? Can the Carl Zeiss 100mm f/2 Makro-Sonnar ZF on the a7 with the Novoflex adapter hold its own with the 90mm f/2 APO Summicron-M on the M240? I picked this scene (shown with… [Read More]

I’d had really good luck with the Zony 55 (official name: Carl Zeiss 55mm f/1.8 Sonnar FE) on the a7R, and I expected superlative results on the less-demanding a7. Just to make things interesting, I compared the combination to the Leica 50mm f/1.4 Summilux-M ASPH on the M240. In some ways, it’s a fair comparison:… [Read More]

Using the methods described in this post, I computed the 14-bit Unity Gain ISO of the a7 at about 525, the 13-bit Unity Gain ISO at 1050, and the full-well capacity at about 86000 electrons. These are very good numbers. I’m a little suspicious, because the same tests gave unreasonably good results for the a7R,… [Read More]

How about the shadow areas in the bookcase pictures? I’m glad you asked. ISO 3200: ISO 1600: ISO 800: ISO 400: ISO 200: ISO 100: